KUALA LUMPUR: Tablo of Seoul-based alternative hip hop group Epik High recently talked about the Korean music industry and on collaborating with Suga of international K-Pop outfit BTS.
According to Soompi, the artiste was answering questions from listeners during an online episode of The Tablo Podcast when Tablo noticed a question from a fan who wanted tips on what path to take to get a foot in the door of the Korean music industry as an artiste, producer or engineer.
The fan had also expressed an opinion that the industry was very corporate and didn’t offer many opportunities for those not taking the route of becoming a trainee at a company.
The rapper, whose real name is Daniel Armand Lee, agreed but said that, “It’s super corporate not just in Korea but everywhere.”
He added: “Judging from the many interviews I’ve done with foreign press, I really do not like or appreciate that they try to pigeonhole K-Pop and the Korean music industry as this super factory-like corporate machine. Because where the hell do you think we got that from? That’s been around for a very, very long time and it happens everywhere else too.”
“Also, I don’t like how they only focus on a few specific cases where that happens and make it seem like every single part of this scene here is like that.
“I think we have possibly the most interesting independent scene anywhere in the world. The music scene here, from live concerts to clubs to just people performing on the streets, the different genres we have, the different messages, the different crews, everything is very, very vibrant and alive.”
Tablo went on to say that even within the companies that are described as “factory-like,” he knows many artistes who are very independent and creative.
“Even if there are certain things that they have to do to, like choreography and stuff like that, they still have enough room to write songs and be creative.”
He explained that he had wanted to talk about this because there was a common misconception that the Korean industry was somehow more corporate than others, when in reality any money-making industry would have a corporate structure and aimed at making profits.
“If you want to be a producer or engineer in this kind of climate, there definitely are more opportunities than just being a trainee or doing the company route.”
He explained that he took the independent route because he had no choice, as the big labels weren’t interested in hip hop at the time and told him that his music would not become big.
This led him to join a small label with only two or three employees, which also witnessed him struggling through many hardships. He added that without social media, it was much harder for artistes to get the word out about their music at the time.
“You just have to work at it, you just have to try,” said Tablo. He shared that there are now many more tools available such as YouTube and social media, and he said that he uses them now a lot too because it’s the only way to get his word and his music across to fans.
Tablo has since found much fame and success with his brand of music. He recently worked with Suga on the chart-topping hit Song Request by Lee Sora featuring Suga and the track Eternal Sunshine this year.
Song Request was co-produced by Tablo with lyrics by the rapper and Suga, while Eternal Sunshine was co-produced by the two with El Capitxn for Epik High’s latest EP Sleepless In _.
It was reported that Suga, a longtime fan of Epik High, had named the trio’s song Fly as one of the reasons the BTS member became a rapper.
On seeing many questions on what it was like to work with the idol, Tablo said: “It’s like working with any other artiste who is very talented and passionate.”
Adding that they shared great chemistry music-wise, he explained: “I think we finished the song in a matter of days, but the actual creation part didn’t even take longer than a few hours.”
“There are certain artistes that are great to work with but the process is longer because you have to get a lot of different tangents on the same page. So yeah, it was pretty awesome,” he said.